Book Review (258): Out Of Play - Jolene Perry & Nyrae Dawn

Out of Play

Rock star drummer Bishop Riley doesn't have a drug problem. Celebrities—especially ones suffering from anxiety—just need a little help taking the edge off sometimes. After downing a few too many pills, Bishop wakes up in the hospital facing an intervention. If he wants to stay in the band, he’ll have to detox while under house arrest in Seldon, Alaska.

Hockey player Penny Jones can't imagine a life outside of Seldon. Though she has tons of scholarship offers to all the best schools, the last thing she wants is to leave. Who'll take care of her absentminded gramps? Not her mother, who can’t even be bothered to come home from work, let alone deal with their new tenants next door.

Penny’s not interested in dealing with Bishop’s crappy attitude, and Bishop’s too busy sneaking pills to care. Until he starts hanging out with Gramps and begins to see what he’s been missing. If Bishop wants a chance with the fiery girl next door, he’ll have to admit he has a problem and kick it. Too bad addiction is hard to kick…and Bishop’s about to run out of time.

My Thoughts.

Out Of Play is a contemporary romance written through the collaboration of two authors Jolene Perry and Nyrae Dawn, I have never read a book from either author before but have always planned on it at some point as both of their books sound really good.

Unfortunately this book fell flat for me, I made myself plod through it so I could finish and be able to write a fair review, I'm not sure what it was exactly or that I could pinpoint precisely what gave me lukewarm feelings for it, I don't think it helped that the e-arc copy I received to review from NetGalley had typos, in particular the letter F, most of the time when a word started with F the letter went missing as well as the second and third letter of the word, so you ended up spending a bit of time trying to decipher what the word was which after a while became extremely frustrating, and yes I understand that arcs are sometimes like this but I've never read one when a whole letter from the alphabet upped and disappeared throughout the whole book!

I also felt like this storyline had been done before, but done better, and with more likeable characters, that's not to say that I disliked all the characters in this book, but to me they seemed few and far between.

I don't think it helped that after reading the synopsis for this book that I was all hyped up thinking this was going to be amazing, sadly that wasn't the case and I wonder if it would have been a better book having been written by a single author not two.

I still plan on someday reading some of these authors other books, this just wasn't the one for me regardless I how much I wanted to love it.

I give this 3/5 Stars.

About Jolene.

Jolene grew up in South-central Alaska. She’s lived in Anchorage, near the Alyeska ski resort, on a cabin on an island on a lake, and then in a boring old house.

Jolene kissed a boy on her high school graduation night. One she’d wanted to kiss for a long time. They got married two years later, have built two homes together, survived military deployments, law school, student loan debt, and two children.

Jolene plays the guitar, takes pictures, and loves to hike. She doesn’t like rivers, but loves the ocean. She loves to fly, but gets motion sick. Her ultimate vacation would be to sail through the deserted islands in The Bahamas. Two years ago, she got that wish when her parents retired on a sailboat.

She taught high school French when she was only a few years older than her students, and then taught middle school math with her degree in political science and French.

She spends grocery money on designer fabric, shoes, and books.

Jolene cannot express how many times she wished she could write a whole novel. And now she has. Many times. Life is good.

Writing has always been Nyrae Dawn’s passion. There have been times in her life where she wasn’t able to chase that dream the way she desired, but she always found her way back to telling stories.

One of her loves has always been writing about teens. There’s something so fresh and fun about the age that she loves exploring. Her husband says it’s because she doesn’t want to grow up. She doesn’t think that’s such a bad thing and luckily for her, he doesn’t either.

Nyrae gravitates toward character-driven stories. She loves going on emotional journeys with characters whether it be reading or writing. And yes, she’s a total romantic at heart and proud.

Nyrae resides in sunny Southern California with her husband (who still makes her swoon) and her two awesome kids.

When she’s not with her family, you can be pretty sure you’ll find her with a book in her hand or her laptop and an open document in front of her.